NEWS

February 18, 2015

MCA Talk
Zackary Drucker, The Skew / Wed, Feb 18, 2015, 6–7:30 pm

Artist Zackary Drucker orchestrates a performative panel to explore issues of “identity” as a theme in contemporary art, transgender representation, and the illusory nature of celebrity culture. Thinking critically about the structure of the diversity talk, Drucker appropriates the format of women-centered, roundtable talk shows. more

The panel of trans* women invited by Drucker to participate in the program include actor Van Barnes; Precious Davis, community activist and Assistant Director of Diversity Recruitment Initiatives at Columbia College; Jen Richards, Codirector of The Trans 100 and creator of We Happy Trans; and Angelica Ross, Executive Director and CEO of TransTech Social Enterprise. [ READ MORE ]

February 15, 2015

Dennis koch featured > Catch 22 X Two — Gallery Luis De Jesus

In this new & terrible year, it has been my delight to assist in the creation of a catalog for the upcoming showing of Dennis Koch at Luis de Jesus, L.A. on February 21st. Dennis is a pretty boss multi-media artist who is attracting some all-seeing type attention from disparate corners of the Great Cubic Matrix of Art 'n' Shizz. For me, this collaboration was all that & a bag of 64 gig hot-cheddar Frito-Lazzles, my brothers & sisters. A memory I will keep close. Thanks, Dennis. Below is a selection from my contribution to the catalog. [ READ MORE ]

February 10, 2015

Latino Lynchings, Police Brutality, And The Challenges Of Minority Law-Enforcement

Discovering a Hidden History
Professor Ken Gonzales-Day hadn’t meant to write a book about lynching until he stumbled across a placid portrait of Rodolfo Silvas, an epically-bearded man who lived in California in the 1880s . When he turned over the card, he found a note identifying Silvas as the last man hanged in Los Angeles.

“I got the idea to find out what [that] actually meant,” said Gonzales-Day, in a phone interview with the Latin Times. more

The professor’s curiosity led to the writing of Lynching in the West: 1850-1935, a well-researched tome that treats both lynchings and their representations in photography. He also produced an art exhibition on those subjects. In one story from his book, which he says is typical, vigilantes in Santa Rosa lynched 3 men around midnight on December 10th, 1920. [ READ MORE ]

kate bonner featured > Uncharted perceptions: a look into the pool of contemporary art

Our world abounds with millions of visionaries and creators who are blessed with the ability to take their unique perceptions and portray them in a visual form. However, the pathfinding artists of modern society are often overlooked for more mainstream creative outlets, and their work does not always receive the amount of acknowledgment it clearly deserves. more

Below are a few names to watch in the world of visual media and art:

1) Kate Bonner: A flat photograph can do a powerful job of enhancing a subject and enlightening a viewer, but the angular abstraction of Kate Bonner’s work adds an entirely new dimension to the medium. In fact, it is difficult to categorize her creations into one set medium or title, and this intentional ambiguity is what sets her apart as an artist. It is also what makes her work so beautifully difficult to put into words. Her photos can be cut, stretched, bound or shifted in a number of ways to fit the dynamic shape of the medium that holds them. [ READ MORE ]

In many ways Nicolas Grenier and Lily Stockman's paintings are perfect complements. They share formal qualities as well as political ideologies, yet the two artists present their concerns in quite different ways.

Grenier's paintings reference visual maps of information that merge abstraction with polemics. They take their cues from data visualizations where gradients are often used to depict transitions from one state to another, often with arrows that flow in multiple directions indicating the different ways that information can move. more

Under the title "One Day Mismatched Anthems Will Be Shouted in Tune" Grenier creates a suite of paintings in which colors are mixed to form earth-toned gradients sharing space with cryptic texts and looping arrows. Concentric rectangles and broad stripes of color gradations divide the paintings into sections. These sections become "rings of pleasant colors," as one painting proclaims. [ READ ON ]

December 08, 2014

nicolas grenier featured: The Perils and Pleasures of the Contemporary Biennale: Case in Point, Montreal

As every city on the globe seemingly has its own biennale these days, necessarily some are less well known than others. I am something of an expert in relative obscurity, having mounted the world’s smallest, the 195 Hudson Street, Apartment 2A Biennale‘ in my own humble abode. La Biennale de Montréal is also amongst the less celebrated biennials, and in fact it was only by complete chance, spying a poster out of the metro window on my arrival in that city, , that I was aware that it was taking place. more

But what it may lack in celebrity it makes up for in local vim and vigour, and indeed in many ways it also serves as a useful paradigm, a sort of perfect example, of the perils and pleasures of the contemporary biennale. [ READ ON ]

November 15, 2014

Sculpture Center Featured artist:
kate bonner

SculptureNotebook, a program of SculptureCenter, a not-for-profit arts institution located in Long Island City, NY, is an online platform that features artists, events, books, and other cultural material pertinent to issues in contemporary sculpture.

FEATURED ARTIST: Kate Bonner - Part photo, part sculpture, Bonner’s work is an attempt to expand space and to bar entry. She uses scissors, scanners, digital erasers and jigsaws to break apart images and deny story. more

She describes a photograph as a wall— a glossy surface that can be either beautiful or dim. In her work, the viewer is neither familiar with the people, places, or things included in the images, nor with the artist’s connection to the imagery depicted.

Her work uses representation but for abstract, formal reasons. She treats photographs as objects and sometimes uses them as portals to break through the surface of the piece. Her work values perceptual failures and contains real boundaries: literally walls, windows, and frames that serve as entry points or that limit access.

Kate Bonner received her MFA from California College of the Arts in 2012. She lives and works in Oakland, CA. In 2013, Bonner was included in NextNewCA, a survey of select California MFA graduates at the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art. She has exhibited at The Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art, San Jose Institute for Contemporary Art, Luis De Jesus Los Angeles, Et al Gallery, Queens Nails, The Popular Workshop, Important Projects, Paris Photo LA, and NADA New York, among others.

Update: Since we originally published this story on May 15, artists Rhys Ernst and Zackary Drucker have expanded on their photographic project, Relationship, which chronicled the pair's romantic relationship as Ernst transitioned from female to male and Drucker transitioned from male to female. Whereas Relationship was a "celebratory and sentimental" look at the opposite-oriented trans* couple's shared life, the new photos in "Post / Relationship / X" reflect Ernst and Drucker's romantic separation: The two remain creative partners, but are no longer lovers. more

Click through to see 10 photographs from Relationship, followed by 19 from Post / Relationship / X. [ READ MORE ]